


Burden of Proof

by JackieSBlake7



Category: Blake's 7
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-13
Updated: 2016-06-13
Packaged: 2018-07-14 20:41:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7189427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JackieSBlake7/pseuds/JackieSBlake7
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Servalan tries to prove who she is</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burden of Proof

'These records #show# you to be Commissioner Sleer. You #claim# to be Supreme-Commander, President and any number of ridiculous titles Servalan - who, according to well publicised evidence, died at Geddon. Prove you are not some con-artist or delusional.' The officer checked his notes. 'There has been a recent outbreak of Shadow usage in the area in which you operate - you, will, of course, not object to tests to see whether you have been handling or taking the stuff.'

'I #am# Servalan.'

'Prove it. There are no images in the records open to my rank - unlike his predecessors or successors... in fact, most of the records on him are blocked.'

'Servalan was a woman!'

'So, they say, were Bartolomew and Cancer - who #had# reason to obscure their identities. Most of the officials known to be associated with Servalan are dead or exiled - you will have to provide sufficient other evidence or reasons to go to the trouble of locating those who have survived, and getting their comments on the subject.' The official sighed. 'Given the present administration's emphasis on regaining, and expanding beyond the regions lost after the War those who serve it at the lower ranks have not been receiving full fiscal recognition for their services.' An overt request for a bribe. He considered his words. 'It does seem rather convenient that the so-called battle which destroyed the so called Central Control or Star One or whatever they chose to call it took place outside the galaxy, so there is no direct evidence of what actually happened. Possibly it was an extreme example of the scams that are sometimes attempted, or official attempts to explain why they don't have the resources they previously stated they had.'

Servalan finally realised the full error of eliminating rather than exploiting those who had recognised her in her role of Sleer. There were, however, some remote possibilities.

'Some of the rebels recognise me...' she began.

'Why is that? And why would #they# wish to help someone so associated with the present regime?'

'There are others...'

****

Servalan ws becoming increasingly desperate to prove who she was: none of the various contacts she suggested were being helpful..

 

'The Teal and Vandor groupings have outstanding legal procedures against President-Whatever Servalan, connected to "a mispresentation in the ritual championship system"- which, to some of my colleagues seems far more practical than the present Federation policy of dealing with rebels. Krantor and Toise of Freedom City "were persuaded to retire", again following an incident involving Servalan. Geren and Belkov, by their own several statements are rather involved in activities that are at best dubious, stretching the principles of legality to their limits, and regularly move beyond legality.' Given the amount of official paperwork, and the level of non-monitoring of expenditure, the official was not surprised that anyone who could exploit loopholes and poorly supervised expenditures of money would do so. 'They would not be considered reliable in any court generally recognised, as they themselves admit.' The official had decided, on the basis of the evidence present, not go to Freedom City during their #very evidently intended# takeover proposal for the Federation, but merely to monitor their activities so that bets could be judiciously placed. Going by what he had read, those who ran Freedom City would make a better job of running the Federation than the present administration: at least they understood finances and how not to exploit the punters who visited them so much they went away.

 

'These people #you# claim to be noted rebels - though not on the present "most wanted" list, state that they are "information traders operating on the margins, trading with whoever pays and is not too threatening to their continued activity" - and provide evidence of your persistent hampering of their operations which are seemingly no more dubious than most of their kind. The sometime Xenon base group, on their own initiative, were aiding the development of regional cooperation and stability: as you were in the region, Commissioner Sleer, this was quite clearly #your# job - can you explain #what# #you# were doing? The Gauda Prime group provide evidence that they were eliminating undesirables on the planet - which both Federation and rebels and indeed anybody down to middling irrational would agree on - while developing a regional computer system that could take over from the existing non-functional one in the area. Just because they were operating outside the normal administrative structure does not make them rebels - considering the amount of paperwork involved, what they were doing actually makes reasonable sense. And do you really think the Federation administration is so stupid that it would give an official post to its most wanted rebel-opponent?' The official was, in fact, not particularly surprised at the possibility, given some of the administration's activities. Possibly it was adhering to the principle of if you cannot beat them, join them or coopt them, at least persuade them to chase after mutually agreed opponents, or pass any inconvenient bucks to them: or "deliberate stupidity" was involved.

****

'I have #finally# managed to obtain an image of Servalan - who was, as you say, a woman - and you do bear a passing resemblance to her. However there is a block on her medical records - placed on request of the Clonemasters, whose previously known base was destroyed.' Whether those in communication were clones of the Clonemasters who had initiated the block or actually those from the previous base was not something the official was going to investigate.

Servalan suspected she would not like the answer to why the Clonemasters' had made their request.

She had very few cards left. She could access nothing directly associated with her previous role.

'There is also Orac ...'

'Who or what is Orac? You will be bringing in one of the proverbial sentient computers next...'

 

'Orac - who refuses to appear in person - says that President Servalan caused much disruption to the activities of the Orac Consortium, and may have been directly or indirectly involved in the deaths of previous associates Ensor and Son Unlimited. Having not previously met you, Commissioner Sleer, in person, your identity cannot be confirmed by Orac, but evidence has been provided that you have caused much inconvenience to the Avon Grouping and the Deva Grouping.' There were economic and other advantages for anyone involved in business activities to register themselves as a company, even down to the "operate on a half-credit traders" level. 'If you still persist in these fantasies of being Servalan, it may be advisable to have some very minor - so I am told - readjustment. We have an arrangement with Carnell, who is considered an expert in such activities, being an ex-psychostrategist.' The official was not quite certain of the significance of the high turnover rates among "official" psychostrategists - though it was possibly related to the rather high fees they seemed to charge.

'The genetic banks on Gauda Prime...' She had spent years disguising her back of beyond origins.

'We can check that - but most of the people on such planets are so related to each other enough times to confuse most computers.' And there were jokes in varying degrees of bad taste on the subject.

****

 

'It seems your earlier records are indeed false, Commissioner: as you know faking of official documents carries heavy penalties; and then there are the accumulated fines arising from not having officially reported your multiple changes of addresses, and interest due thereupon. Until our investigations are completed you will be placed on gardening leave...' The official was not surprised when Sleer proved to be one of the cases where officers presented with the decision overreacted enough to justify the standard presence of a couple of security staff.

****

Commissioner Sleer was not quite certain what had motivated her to think she was Servalan: the puppeteer had insisted he had performed only a very minor tweaking on her misguided ambitions, arisen from her common background with the late Supreme Commander and ambition.

In fact, when she read up on Servalan she wondered why she had had the fantasy: if there were fewer people like the sometime Supreme Commander and President there might well be less disruption - and it was clear from the entities around the Federation and other evidence that the pacification program was ineffective, masking the problem rather than resolving it. It made more sense to deal with those who opposed the regime by other means.

She had written one standard manual, and decided to write another based on her research.: 'Cooperation or clashes - the case for co-opting critics' actively promoted the possibility, and was regarded as a classic in the field.

The Commissioner was getting rather tired of people insisting she was Servalan, no matter how many times she told them otherwise. She would have to do something about it.


End file.
